Comparing "A Doll's House" And "Virginia Woolf"

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A Comparison between“A Doll’s House” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” The drama plays “A Doll’s House” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” are depictions of the married couple as the central characters.Both plays involve conflict in marriage as a central plot event, but portray the events and characters differently, to contrasting effect. One point of contrast is the character relationship within the couple.As the play is introduced, the reader receives a first impression of the couple’s marriage situation.Superficially, the interaction between husband and wife in “A Doll’s House” is puerile in a way with affectionate nicknaming involved. However, Nora’s subversion of hiding the macaroons and the contract that let her borrow from Krogstad indicate the lack of transparency in the marriage and suggests the instability of such a relationship.On the other hand, the marriage between George and Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is also convoluted except with storytelling and deliberate humiliation openly directed towards each other. Conflict is a prevalent idea in both novels, but is depicted differently in each.In “A Doll’s House”, the character conflict is primarily that of principle. Helmer believes that “an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home”. Nora’s subterfuge of forging a signature to borrow money for Helmer’s wellbeing went against his principle of reputation’s importance and was the trigger of Helmer’s spastic outburst near the end of the play.Character conflict is depicted much more explicitly in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”.Many of the games that Martha and George play with the guests are based upon a power struggle for the satisfaction of insulting and enraging the spouse. The more subtle conflict in “A Doll’s House” is thus contrasting with the more obvious clashes in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”.
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